2. Stanlake Park Wine Estate

South East England is gaining a reputation for its wine, especially sparkling and whites.

There’s an award-winning producer just north of Wokingham, where you can book extensive tours of the vineyard and winery.

These cost £20 a head and last for approximately two hours.

On the way around the grape-pressing area, fermentation tanks, barrel room, “fizz” room for sparkling wine and bottling zone you’ll discover the ins and outs of making high-quality wine in England.

In each area you’ll taste a different wine, adding up to eight in all (three whites, two rosés, two sparkling and one red). So it’s a good idea to book a cab! At the end of the tour you can browse the Cellar Shop to get hold of any of the wines that you enjoyed on the tour.

3. Dinton Pastures Country Park

In the same borough there’s a 450-acre country park with seven lakes, two rivers, woodland and meadows.

In the summer holidays the Dinton Activity Centre on Black Swan Lake welcomes kids up to the age of 17 for courses and taster sessions in canoeing and paddling.

Between the start of April and the end of September you can also hire a boat to float around the lake.

This service is available seven days a week in the school holidays, and just on weekends at other times.

There’s a play park for youngsters, while the Dragonfly Café is in a converted farmhouse dating to 1904. If you take your time on a walk in Dinton Pastures you may see Muntjac and roe deer in the meadows and woodland, while the diversity of bird life recorded in the park is massive.

Among them are waders like grey herons, little egrets and redshanks, or birds of prey such as peregrine falcons, marsh harriers, red kites and buzzards.

4. California Country Park

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California Country Park

Great for a family excursion in summer, California Country Park is 100 acres of ancient lowland heath and bogland.

The park is maintained by Wokingham Borough and contains a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

If the name sounds exotic it comes from the nearby village, named after an old brickworks.

Longmoor lake here is a habitat for cormorants, Canada geese, mallards and coots and has a surfaced walking path on its banks for relaxing walks.

If you come with children the park has swings, an adventure playground and a paddling pool that opens in summer.

You could also grab a bite at Jackson’s, the highly-rated cafe near the lake.

6. Wokingham Theatre

This theatre on Twyford Road is home to an amateur repertory group active for more than 70 years and still going strong.

The 250-strong group puts on eight major productions a year, each running for nine nights during a season from September through to the end of July.

As well as these big productions there are short runs for more obscure plays and youth theatre performances, while the venue is also made available to the Wokingham community for concerts and workshops.

Some of the big shows for the 2018-19 season were The 39 Steps, Sense and Sensibility, The Taming of the Shrew and The Lady Killers.

Every function, from wardrobe to lighting, sound, bar duties and programme printing is carried out by volunteers.

8. Dinton Adventure Golf

One of the best things about Dinton Pastures Country Park is its 18-hole adventure golf course, which has been put together with a lot of care, and no little imagination.

This challenging but entertaining course is themed on the natural world, and dotted with lifelike models of animals, some life-sized, like the big buck and doe in the middle, and some enlarged, like a giant ant crawling over one of the greens, as well as a beetle, squirrel and frog.

The course is open every day of the week in summer, and weekends in winter, and as of 2019 costs £5.50 for adults and £4.50 for kids under 16.

9. The Look Out Discovery Centre

In the Swinley Forest, which covers almost 2,500 acres to the south-east of Wokingham, there’s a children’s science attraction.

The Look Out Discovery Centre offers more than 90 activities that will challenge little ones, get them thinking about scientific concepts and stimulate their creativity.

They can help a boat navigate an indoor stream, launch a hydrogen rocket, use teamwork to build a house, capture their silhouette, see the world floating in mid-air, make a tune using lasers and watch a colony of leaf-cutter ants at work.

The centre has a 22-metre lookout tower above the forest and a big outdoor play area.

10. Monkey Mates

The sort of amenity that is always appreciated by parents with toddlers or smaller children, Monkey Mates is an indoor playground based in the north-west suburb of Emmbrook and open every day of the week.

Monkey Magic is a warehouse with soft padding from floor to ceiling.

There are ball pits, slides, obstacles to climb on and lots of little side games and toys.

13. Keephatch Park Nature Reserve

On Wokingham’s east shoulder is a calming mosaic of woodland and water, moments from the centre of town.

There are four individual areas at the reserve, generally along Binfield Road, with a large tract of woodland (Keephatch Woods) bounded by the A 329. At one time this all belonged to the Keep Hatch Manor, which had a house built in the 1870s but pulled down in the 1990s to make way for the new housing estate next to the woods.

14. Pinewood Miniature Railway

Something to put in the diary if you’re into trains or have young children, the Pinewood Miniature Railway has steam locomotives you can ride running on half a mile of 7 1⁄4-inch track through quiet woodland.

This takes place on the third Sunday of the month, between April and October and the trains are operated by lifelong enthusiasts.

You can buy light refreshments here, while the railway can also be hired out for two hours at a time for children’s birthdays.

15. Golf

Like many of the things to do around Wokingham, the closest golf course is designed with all ages in mind.

Wokingham Family Golf Course is a new arrival, comprising a nine-hole pitch and putt in lovely countryside, along with an adventure course and a driving range.

It’s just the place for children to take their first putt, but will also suit experienced golfers working on their game.

Close to this course is Sand Martins Golf Club, a member’s club that accepts visitor bookings.

If you’re an experienced player the 18-hole course is something special, with a front nine in manicured parkland typical for the South of England, while the back nine is a testing links-style course of the kind you’d normally have to travel to the coast to play.